After three weeks, tensions started to run high in Cleveland. The city’s largest automotive factory, the Albert Kahn-designed seven-story Fisher Body plant on the corner of Coit Road and East 140th Street, which dated to 1921 and at the time built two-door Chevrolet bodies, had been strike-bound since the UAW-CIO – at the time a rival union to the AFL – called the strike among nearly a dozen GM plants in early July.

The 1937 sit-down strike in Flint had legitimized the UAW and led GM to first bargain with the unions (and actually had its beginnings at the Cleveland Fisher Body plant on December 30, 1936), but by the summer of 1939, with the UAW-CIO seeking a supplemental agreement to provide for GM’s tool and die workers, GM refused to bargain, claiming it didn’t know whether the UAW-CIO or the AFL held the legally binding contract with GM. GM President William “Big Bill” Knudsen told the newspapers that if the strike continued, it would delay production of the company’s 1940 automobiles.

By all accounts, the early days of the strike seemed rather uneventful in Cleveland; GM officials said the Fisher Body plant continued to operate normally throughout the strike, though some newspaper accounts claimed it actually operated “at a curtailed rate.” The week before, UAW-CIO leader Robert Travis (an instrumental figure in the 1937 sit-down strike) had arrived in Cleveland to take command of the strike, promising to close the plant down. On the morning of July 31, a Monday following a weekend shutdown at the plant, a group of employees from the nearby White Motors factory on East 79th Street, along with another group of workers from Bender Body, massed outside the Fisher Body plant’s Coit Road entrance to bar non-striking employees from entering the factory and to support the picketers. Everybody expected trouble that morning; the strikers wore helmets of papier-mache, while about 100-150 Cleveland police officers showed up mounted on horses and brandishing tear gas cannons. “It was known that the beginning of the day shift would probably witness a test of the union’s picketing strength,” one newspaper reported. Cleveland Mayor Harold Burton was on hand, along with an observer from the Ohio National Guard, Brigadier General Ludwig Conelly (and one of his captains, L.J. Abele), and Cleveland’s Safety Director, a former federal agent from Chicago named Eliot Ness.

The trouble started, almost right on cue, at 6 a.m. when a group of non-striking employees attempted to drive through the crowd, estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 people, to get to work. The crowd of strikers closed in around the cars, prompting the mounted police to charge into the crowd to make way for the non-striking employees. The crowd responded by pelting the cars and the mounted officers with rocks and pavers, initiating the fighting that continued over the next couple of hours, oftentimes directly in front of Ness and Mayor Burton. The police pelted the crowds with tear gas and water cannons while the strikers continued to harass non-striking employees, turning over cars and throwing tear gas canisters back at the police. Strikers and protesters armed themselves with picket sticks and makeshift clubs. One report told of a group of non-striking employees pulled from a car and beaten by strikers.

Just then a non-striker’s car approached from East 140th Street. There was a hoot and a chorus of shouts and the pickets surged toward it. A brick demolished the windshield. Other stones smashed the side windows. Pickets dragged the occupants out and began beating them. Men with clubs beat on the radiator. The crowd turned the car over. One of the occupants escaped and began to run, with pickets in pursuit. Someone flung a match into the gasoline which had began to drip from the car. The rear end flamed up and firemen rushed in with hand extinguishers and snuffed the blaze. Once the firemen turned the hose on the strike sympathizers.

The police, ordered not to shoot into the crowds unless the strikers stormed the plant, nevertheless turned to force. At one point, they were described as “swinging their clubs right and left,” and, aided by reinforcements taken off traffic duty in downtown Cleveland, they eventually pushed the crowds away from the Coit Road entrance to the plant and toward Donovan’s Loop, a local restaurant that became the makeshift headquarters for the union leaders orchestrating the strike. By mid-morning, Cleveland Police Chief George Matowitz met with Travis and negotiated a truce. Though fighting flared up later in the afternoon – prompted by Travis operating a sound truck and public address system from the top of Donovan’s Loop, promising that twice the crowd size would show up the next day – it was largely over. Forty-six people were reported injured in the fighting, and police arrested 13 strikers.

Ness declared a prohibited zone around the plant, barring “riotous assembly or mass formation” and told the strikers that they could post no more than five picketers at each plant entrance; he later described the proclamation as “virtual martial law” in that area, though he did make an exception for Donovan’s Loop, where he allowed no more than 10 union organizers at a time. The picketers moved from the plant to the homes of non-striking employees, but Ness later declared an absolute ban on picketing homes across the city of Cleveland. About 450 non-striking employees managed to make it inside the plant that morning, and about 200 of them remained in the plant overnight while the crowds – which swelled to an estimated 8,000 people throughout the day – slowly dispersed. Ness kept police officers posted at the plant overnight, just in case the promised 20,000 strikers showed up the next day, but they never materialized.

Clashes occurred over the following days in Detroit, but no further fighting flared up in Cleveland. With the general strike going on four weeks, however, and with production of the 1940 models looming, GM flinched. By that Friday, August 4, GM drew up a contract with the UAW-CIO granting tool and die workers an increase in overtime pay, bringing an end to the strike that had idled 7,000 workers at 12 different GM plants. “The union thus struck at a strategic moment,” The New York Times wrote. Indeed, GM was able to introduce its 1940 models in time that September. Perhaps more important to the UAW-CIO, the contract gave them exclusive recognition with GM, though editorials across the country denounced the UAW-CIO’s tactics during the strike.

The photographs below are part of a larger set documenting the strike and the riot which were included in a report submitted to the Ohio National Guard’s Adjutant General’s Department by Conelly and Abele and which are now in the Ohio Historical Society’s collection, hosted online at ohiomemory.org. Corbis Images has another couple ofphotographs of the riot in their collection.

Ness, who was hired on as safety director in Cleveland in December 1935, continued in that position through 1942, then returned to Northeast Ohio two years later and made an unsuccessful run for mayor of Cleveland in 1947. The members of the UAW Local 45 at the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland did strike again in 1946, seeking a 30 percent wage increase and an end to piecemeal work at the plant; their demands were only partially met. The chapter was officially disbanded after GM shut down the Fisher Body plant in 1982. Today, the plant’s location now houses the Cleveland Job Corps Center.

Toledo Auto-lite Strike by AFL. April 12 to June 3, 1934. Considered to be one of the three most important strikes is U.S. history by many Labor historians. Five-day running battle between roughly 6,000 strikers and 1,300 Ohio National Guard troops. Known as the “Battle of Toledo”.

Not to mention, that he was the last president to wear the ever-cool top hat at his inauguration. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone seriously wear a top hat since seeing the footage of that event.

My Father B.T. Judd was right in the thick of that melee as a Union supporter & plant employee. It began his lifelong involvement with unions, from 43 on he worked for the unions, becoming a national field rep for the AFL-CIO until his retirement in 1979. He was saddened by what the unions had become (and by Reagan busting everyone he could) by the time of his death in 85… they were a good thing in his day, not so much anymore.
C_C

What ever happened to talk negotiations. It just shows that these union officials were nothing more than thugs, who used brute force, mob hysteria and planned timing ( to affect the introduction of the new models) as weapons against the big bosses. They wouldn’t talk with bosses because they knew they didn’t have the negotiating educational brains. It was these guys and their equally thug successors that effectively ruined the US auto industry. Also I am always highly suspicious of crowd figures quoted in the media – 5,000 – you have to be joking. Also telling that 20,000 would turn up the next day – get real.
Anyway what did they achieve in real terms – Mostly it was to justify the union officials exaggerated salaries.
If you want comparisons look at what most of the English car makers of the twenties and thirties did for their workers. Then following WW2 the unions began a campaign that eventually destroyed the British car industry. And did the unions compensate the owners ofd the damaged cars, and or public property. No way – this was in the interest of their buddies. Just thuggery, nothing more.

It takes two to negotiate. The companies wouldn’t come to the table with any reasonable offer and would NOT compromise.
If you like your weekends, vacations, sick days, health insurance, retirement, job security, fair treatment, living wages and workplace safety, thank a union member who walked the picket line for you. Don’t think unions are useless these days, employers would gladly pay slave wages if they could get away with it. Did you know unions are outlawed in China and Mexico?

So you think rioting is negotiating….why is the auto industry dead? where have the pension funds gone? Do you think the rank and file make the money? Unions are a scourage on society that have destroyed just about everything they have ever touched….

My brother in law was a lifelong G.M. employee.Now think about these figures BEFORE you get angry with me. He retired at a rate of %68 of his highest pay.That figure is %20 higher than the highest social security I,ve ever recieved.He also did 20 in the USAAF.Retirement at the rate they make.Now he also worked part time in a store.$10.80 an hour.He always said he didn,t have enough to live on!! He had no hobbies, did not drink and always got a car from G.M. at a heavy discount. In 1964 I went to work at BETHLEHEM STEEL.Rate of pay $26.75 an hour!( this is 1964 remember).Gasoline at that time was 57 cents a gallon. Now do you see where I am going with this. A year into the job I was told I would walk the “line”(the local went on strike against the company).I didn,t get to vote on it because of the MANDATORY 1 yr.probationary period as defined by the UNION!. I refused.I was promptly escorted by my shop steward off the premises ,called a scab and told to never come back.Thats how the unions still operate!.G.M. has downsized .The steelplant I worked at isn,t even there anymore ,but ,the remaining employees of these companies and the companies themselves still have to pony up the cash to pay for all those agreements still in place!! I say join a union if you must,but give me the right NOT to!! Thay have destroyed the fabric of the manufacturing base in the U.S. Look how many jobs are being shipped overseas.Cheaper wages and more merchandise and no fear of shutdowns!! Notice I did not mention quality.The AMERICAN UNION WORKER and his or her NON-UNION worker partner on the line or whatever has always put out a consistently better ,higher quality product IN MOST CASES. There has been ,still are and always those who get in the union and then sluff on their work knowing full well the union will stick up for them if the company tries to terminate them.That is what the unions have become,shields for those who want the pay ,but don,t want to earn it!! Sorry,I have lost more BECAUSE of any union that I HAD to join thanI ever gained in the long run

In Texas you don’t have to join the union if your job is unionized, but you still get all the negotiated benefits and pay.
This is known as a freeloader.
If you really don’t like unions, either start your own business, don’t work at a union shop or decline the pay and benefits your union negotiated for you.

I always believed in buy American. I could not help but notice that in recent years China has taken up where Japan left off making products for the USA. Last year I had to purchase a new Hydraulic press for my shop and purchased it from Loews. As I looked over the various presses, I picked one that loked OK. When I got it home and looked at it closely, I noticed that it had a great paint job on it comparable to a paint job on a car and with no nicks or scratches in it. Upon closer inspection it had a sticker on the bottom “Made In China” I just do not see the attention to detail on the American made goods. I will keep looking though.

Fascinating post. I read through it several times, having never realized that Ness had this sort of episode during his tenure in Cleveland. Ness endures as a mythic figure because a lot of his reputation was built on myth. He invited reporters along on liquor raids in Chicago while he was a Prohibition agent. Tax accountants put Capone away, but Ness was remembered. His tenure in Cleveland had been shaken by the time of these incidents: His police failed to apprehend a serial murderer known as the Torso Killer, and Ness was scandalized by escapades with a mistress culminating in a hit-and-run accident with his city car, probably while intoxicated. Ness later ran for mayor of Cleveland but lost badly.

> In 1964 I went to work at BETHLEHEM STEEL.Rate of pay $26.75 an hour<

Compare that with the non union south. In NC, I could only
get a job at a capacitor manufacturing plant at 1.25 an hour.
in 1966. My parents made less per hour at a cotton mill in 1964.
They kept the unions out, any talk of it resulted in you being
fired.

GM and unions. Remember that now (post the GM bankruptcy) the Unions literally OWN GM! Yup they own controlling interest in the company. So negotiations? The union will be talking to themselves. Raises? Benefits? the union will have to decide how to pay it. Wonder how they will manage that?

I have yet to see a union care about maintaining the good health of the company they depend on. (only very recent concessions where they faced total plant shutdowns)

I have also never heard of a union supporting QUALITY. How many poor performing jerks have seen the union fight to the death to keep them on the job. Lower productivity, lower quality = same pay —> jobs sent elsewhere. Somebody killed the golden goose.

Unions had their place but now there are federal laws that handle many of the issues that unions fought for. In 2011, unions are only concerned with collecting dues and lining their own pockets. They are happy to run a company out of business so everyone loses instead of coming to the table with solutions.

Thanks for keeping alive this fascinating bit of labor and automotive history. The photos you chose beautifully illustrate the narrative. It’s a good reminder for all of us that the old cars we love are not just hunks of metal but contain the sweat and blood of the people who made them.

Unions are still needed especially in public service positions where politicians hold the power. Before unions, teachers were fired to open a position for a politician’s friend or relative regardless of their ability to teach. My contract (I’m recently retired) had to include such requirements as a servicable desk and chair and a 25 minute lunch period because we were provided with neither. Try eating your lunch while supervising a cafeteria full of elementary age children in an inner city school!

If you want to really discuss whether unions were/are good or necessary, do some reading! From the rise of industrialization in the 19th century, there were all kinds of abuses of employees. As many have said, unions did bring some fairness & benefits into the equation. They also abused things & contributed to the demise of many companies.
That being said, Right to work laws in 24 states have made closed shops history. How good this will be remains to be seen. The staggering loss of manufacturing in this country wasn’t just due to unions, but wrong-headed or well meaning politicians & social engineers. There will never be enough well paid burger & bed pan flipper jobs, because a service economy does not build “wealth”. ONLY manufacturing does. Every 3rd world country gets this, and really work at protecting & promoting that.

Love the story and the article. Seems like we have lost all the influence we once had. ‘Martial Law’ already an accepted way to ‘govern’ conditions that are detrimental to the population.

The real reason for this comment is of different nature. On the image ‘FisherBodystrike_5_700′ you can see a woman dressed in white in the lower left bottom corner. Do you see what I see? The Lady is standing on top of the right front fender of a car. Now that was a fender! Not like the aluminum wrap like skin they use nowadays – and still don’t get more MPG than the cars on these images…

I find the photo showing the crowd flipping an automobile to be disturbing. Strike violence, and the corruption of union leaders, leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many people. That is why many of us today have no desire to be part of a labor union.

The unions were effective in creating higher wages for their members. Of course, nowadays most of us buy imported products because we don’t want to pay the higher product prices which are necessitated by the higher wages. When UAW members drive imported cars you know something is wrong.

Unions, just like everything else, are black and white with all shades of gray to them. Take a look at the bigger picture. In the past as in the present there were/are individuals, “Barons,” of the free market who haven’t a dime to spare. Millions and billions to their names, scheming to get laws changed to benefit themselves. Check out George Pullman to see what he had up his sleeve for his workers. He printed his own currency to which he paid his workers and could only be spent in his company stores. Laws were made to prevent future abuses occurring. Henry Ford was smart enough to initially pay his workers enough to afford the autos they were building, even though later on his turned his back on sharing the wealth in his later years. Today the laws have been changed to help corporations benefit their bottom lines by shipping production out of the US. This leaves less money to spend on their goods. Greed is eventually a poor business model as is violence in retaliation to greed.Share the wealth! Who really NEEDS a BILLION dollars anyway?!!

The biggest problem today is greed in the world .The big companys and their execatives are as greedy as the unions are. With out the unions you would be making $0.50 to a $1.00 an hour .Look at China Tiwan Mexico how maney of you would like to go there and work at there rates of pay , Don’t worry the unions have been greedy to..If wages hadent come up to the standards they are today you wouldent be able to afford the classic cars of today. Many of the high paid exectaves of these big co and corps are picking up a half million dollars ayear only work for 7 years can retire and pick up a million dollars severance pay and then receive 250,000.00 a year for the rest of their life. Pretty nice. I don’t see any union workers with that benefit. Fifty years ago a doctor or lawyer would have made a salary of 40 to 50 thousand dollars a year and a construction worker would have made 8 to 10 thousand ayear. How much is the difference today? Get rid of greed and we will all be better off. Enuff of my ranting and raving. Good night, Bill

Yeah, I hear you. If you don’t think unions are relevant today just ask any former Delphi salary employee how quick they got thrown under the bus by GM when Delphi filed for their (designed) bankruptcy. Not one UAW represented member ever lost a dime over this but the salary people got hosed big time. And before you go off….remember we buy our politicians the same as you do yours: only we do a better job at it. Thank you UAW

I was in that plant many times from the late 70′s until they closed it in 82. It was almost impossible to get into even then unless you worked there. We got as far as the employment office and waited for the shift supervisor to bring the person wanted on a warrant to us. We were with the East Cleveland Police Dept. then and lived in the area. The plant sure looked sad when they closed it.